1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an arbitration system for a machine tool control having multiple processors and a local memory associated with each processor and more particularly to such an arbitration system which allows one processor to access the local memory of a second processor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Multi-processor control systems typically include a local memory associated with each processor for storing data used only by that processor. Such systems also include a global memory for storing all data which is used by more than one of the processors. Access to the global memory is gained through a global arbitrator which allows only one processor to have access at a time. Because most of the data used by the processors is stored in the global memory, the demand for access thereto is extremely high with a bottleneck typically forming at the arbitrator. Whereas a processor's access to its local memory is fast in such systems, access to data stored in the global memory is relatively slow.